Portable electronic equipment is generally powered by secondary batteries to enable the power source to be regenerated when depleted. In some cases, the current drain required from the battery by the portable equipment may be substantial for short periods, such as for portable cellular phones during transmission. Although the average power supplied by the battery is moderate, substantial pulses of current may be required for short periods during transmission. It is for this reason that the batteries used in such devices have to have low internal resistance, such that they are capable of supplying these high current pulses. Generally, batteries such as Li-ion are used in such applications, as they can supply the high current pulses. Most primary cells, even though they may have higher storage capacity, cannot be used to power such devices. Since batteries such as Li-ion with high current supplying capabilities are generally expensive, this may be a limitation on the proliferation of the use of such devices. Thus, if a cheaper method of supplying power were available for cellular phones, it has been estimated that there would be much wider use of such devices, especially in developing parts of the world. Such a power source should be able to use standard primary cells such as alkaline cells that are low-cost, simple, safe and very widely available, these features being in contrast to the Li-Ion phone batteries generally used today. Furthermore, such a power source would enable the proliferation of such devices in regions without a developed electricity infrastructure.
The disclosures of each of the publications mentioned in this section and in other sections of the specification are hereby incorporated by reference, each in its entirety.